


Dance of the Winter Palace

by Asdrator



Category: Fire Emblem Series, Fire Emblem: If | Fire Emblem: Fates, Fire Emblem: Kakusei | Fire Emblem: Awakening
Genre: Angst, F/M, Romance, and to many more, figure skating AU, happy birthday bina
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-08
Updated: 2020-09-08
Packaged: 2021-03-07 00:21:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26357881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Asdrator/pseuds/Asdrator
Summary: After a terrible accident in the rink leaves Niles with one eye and an aversion to skating with someone else, his friend and coach Leon tries to find somebody who can change his mind. After meeting Emmeryn, another figure skater, by chance, he convinces Niles to give her a shot.
Relationships: Emerina | Emmeryn/Zero | Niles
Comments: 2
Kudos: 3





	Dance of the Winter Palace

“Come on, Niles. You have to at least give her a chance.”

“Or what? You’ll spank me?”

As Coach Leo groaned in frustration, Niles let out a small chuckle. It was genuinely amazing how fun making Leo’s life difficult was. Though really that was at least partially the man’s own fault. People with a stick up their ass always were the most delightful to tease, and Leo had the biggest stick in there of all of them. As Niles took another drag from his cigarette, Leo seemed to have calmed himself and controlled his irritation, and turned to Niles once again. “Give her a chance or I’m kicking you off the rink for a month.”

For once, Niles actually looked mildly surprised, but this quickly, perhaps inevitably, turned into a smirk. “You’re bluffing. You wouldn’t do that.”

“And why not?”

“Cause I’m your favorite customer. Also because this isn’t the only rink in town. Could always go over to Hoshidotown if I wanted to, skate for them instead.”

Leo snorted. “You aren’t anywhere close to being my favorite, that’s Flayn without a doubt, cause unlike a certain someone she actually cleans up after herself. Also, you wouldn’t do that.”

“And why not?”

“Cause I’m your favorite coach.”

Niles rolled his eyes. “Are not.”

“Are too.”

“Shut up, nerd.” Niles put out his cigarette on the ground, and stood up to throw it away in a trash can close to them. Perhaps the comment about Flayn had actually made him a little jealous. If so, he was great at hiding it otherwise. “...Alright.”

“Alright?”

“Alright, I’ll give her a shot. If she drops me, though, I get your salary for a month.” Niles said, looking over at Leo with his good eye, searching for a reaction.

“Done deal. Worst comes to worst my family will just take care of me.” Leo replied in an almost bored tone. “With the money I make them running this rink for them, they have no reason to just let me starve.”

“Spoiled brat.”

“Filthy trash.”

Niles grinned widely, before turning to head home, waving lazily to Leo as he went. As soon as he was out of sight, Leo let out a breath and dialed a number in a panic. “Emmeryn, you absolutely cannot lose this opportunity. Daddy needs his money for his funko pop collection!”

“...What?”

“Just… don’t drop him.”

“Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence, Coach.”  
—————————————————————  
Niles had not been having a very good year, to put it lightly. To put it bluntly, by a combination of his own actions, the actions of others, and spectacularly bad luck, his life was all but ruined. There was no way he’d ever successfully skate with a partner again, and he knew it. It was great that Coach Leo was trying to look out for him, but that was just how it was, and he wished he’d get that already.

It had all started when his previous partner had dropped him onto the ice facefirst. Hard. The next thing he knew was unspeakable pain, then darkness, then waking up in a hospital bed. The darkness didn’t leave however, not completely. His eye had been crushed by the fall, impossible to save the doctors had said. Ever since, he had been afraid of falling, afraid of trusting another with his safety. He’d stopped skating as part of a pair, had decided to stick to skating alone from now on, even if he wasn’t quite as good at it, and probably never would be.

The problem was, he had been a rising star back when he was still part of a pair, had even managed to win a few competitions. Obviously, nobody wanted to just let talent like that go. At least, that’s what he told himself, because if he started thinking Leo actually cared about him for who he was he wouldn’t be able to bear it anymore.

So now he found himself in this situation, reluctant though he was. His eye drifted over to the clock on the wall. “She’s ten minutes late.” He said to Leo, who had volunteered to keep him company while he waited, perhaps fearing Niles might change his mind and up and leave if left alone. “You said she would be early, and yet…”

“Look, just wait a little longer, alright?”

“You keep saying that, Leo, but-“

The door to Leo’s office burst open, and there was Emmeryn, out of breath. “Sorry I’m late!” She said quickly. “Missed my bus. Had to go on foot.”

That made both Niles and Leo blink, and the corner of the former’s lips curled into a smirk. She had run all the way here? This could be interesting. “Good to meet you, Miss Emmeryn. You can call me Niles.” He offered a hand, which Emmeryn took with an apologetic smile.

“Glad to be here. Let’s get along, shall we?”

With an inscrutable look on his face, Leo seemed to study Niles. When he finally spoke, it was to the both of them. “Let’s start off by having you both practice to see if you work together well, shall we?  
—————————————————————  
To say that Emmeryn was new to skating would be a lie. She’d always enjoyed it, had practiced it ever since she was a little girl to at least some extent. Any hopes she had had of actually competing, though, were crushed by the death of her father when she and her younger siblings, Chrom and Lissa, were but children. They had never known their mother, so distant relatives took them in, but Emmeryn could tell that her little siblings were having difficulty bonding with anybody after the death of their father, so she had taken it upon herself to make sure they grew up to be whole and happy people. Blood was thicker than water, after all, and what was the ice but water suspended, like a dream forgotten?

However, Chrom and Lissa had become adults now, and when Emmeryn had, only half-jokingly, told them that she didn’t know what to do with all the newfound free time she had, they had told her that she should consider putting more time into her hobby. The more Emmeryn thought about it, the more she realized they were right. Her experiences on the ice were one of the few things that gave her joy that she could consider truly hers. Being able to compete at last… the ice that had frozen the rink of her dreams began to melt.

Out there, she could be herself. She could be free. And after meeting Coach Leo by chance (she was trying to buy a funko pop as a gift for Lissa’s collection at the same Leo was trying to buy one for his) they had gotten to talking about skating, and she soon found her opportunity to be out there.

All that remained was to live up to the expectations placed on her. No matter what, she would not fail to do so.  
—————————————————————  
He had to admit, Emmeryn was better than he had expected, though Niles supposed his expectations had been at rock bottom anyways. Matching his pace perfectly, she got herself in tune with his movements so quickly that even Niles was impressed. However, all that remained insignificant if she couldn’t manage the most important part of this practice: the trust fall. If Emmeryn couldn’t manage it without dropping Niles or even making it too close of a call, she could kiss her chance goodbye. Which, in all likelihood, also meant Niles kissing his chance of competing as part of a pair again goodbye.

As they approached the time of the trust fall, Leo watched with rapt attention. Niles thought that he would have to thank him later, if it all worked out. Then he realized that what he was feeling, what Leo and Emmeryn had given him, was a sense of hope. Hope was dangerous, it was deceitful, it was treacherous. Right now, though, it felt only warm and uplifting, and so Niles decided to let the feeling stay rather than try and quash it like he usually did. Perhaps, for once, he might place a little faith in those around him.

When at last the time came for the trust fall, Niles took a deep breath, then fell back, and back, and back. Fractions of moments felt like minutes, and Niles could feel the sky falling, falling, falling towards him. He almost stopped himself from falling, almost gave up on his hope. For some reason, though, looking up at Emmeryn’s determined face, he couldn’t do that. He could no longer crush his own dreams anymore, let alone those of somebody else.

So he kept falling, and sure enough, she caught him as planned. “You alright there?” Emmeryn asked sincerely, glancing down at him. Why hadn’t he noticed how beautiful her lashes were, how gorgeous her face was.

“Yeah. Yeah, I’m perfectly fine.” He lied. Niles had realized why he was beginning to notice those sorts of things.

He was beginning to fall in love with that determination she showed.

Little did he know, she was beginning to fall in love with him as well. As they went to leave the rink, their practice over, a faint blush colored her cheeks.

Perhaps hope remained for them after all.


End file.
